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  1. #1
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    Cool True Story..........Miracles Thread.

    Enjoy!

    Subject: Beautiful story.... makes you understand that things happen for a reason

    The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen
    a church in suburban Brooklyn , arrived in early October excited about their
    opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much
    work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on
    Christmas Eve. They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc,
    and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.

    On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for
    two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he
    saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8
    feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning
    about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what
    else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he
    noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity so he
    stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted
    tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the
    center. It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall. He bought
    it and headed back to the church.

    By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite
    direction was trying to catch the bus.. She missed it. The pastor invited her to
    wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid
    no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the
    tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it
    looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking
    down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet.. "Pastor," she asked, "where did
    you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the
    lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They
    were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35
    years before, in Austria

    The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the
    tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were
    well-to-do people in Austria . When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her
    husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and
    never saw her husband or her home again. The pastor wanted to give her the
    tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on
    driving her home, that was the least he could do.. She lived on the other side of
    Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

    What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The
    music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife
    greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man,
    whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews
    and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving. The man asked him where he
    got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife
    had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be
    two tablecloths so much alike. He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced
    his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was
    arrested and put in a prison.. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35
    years in between.

    The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove
    to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three
    days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's
    apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could
    ever imagine.

    True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid

    Who says God does not work in mysterious ways.. I asked the Lord to bless you as I
    prayed for you today, to guide you and protect you as you go along your way. His
    love is always with you, His promises are true, and when we give Him all our cares
    you know He will see us through.

    So when the road you're traveling on seems difficult at best.. Just remember I'm
    here praying and God will do the rest. Pass this on to those you want God to bless
    and don't forget to send it back to the one who asked God to bless you first. When
    there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need.
    Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small
    prayer for the person who sent you this.

    Father, God, bless all my friends and family in what ever it is that You know they
    may be needing this day! May their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power
    as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you. Amen. Then send it on to
    five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours five people
    have prayed for you and you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people.
    Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.

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  4. #2
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    What a beautiful story!
    "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything."

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  6. #3
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    Cool Now Do As said Here.

    Quote Originally Posted by Pegasus View Post
    What a beautiful story!
    Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small
    prayer for the person who sent you this.

    Father, God, bless all my friends and family in what ever it is that You know they
    may be needing this day! May their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power
    as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you. Amen.

    Then send it on to
    five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours five people
    have prayed for you and you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people.
    Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pegasus View Post
    What a beautiful story!
    I live in Brooklyn, blocks from the bridge that takes you to Staten Island, do you know what the name of the Church is??? I'd like to visit it.

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  10. #5
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    beautiful story...why is it in the dinar thread? is this where we share inspirational stories? please dont read this as sarcasm-just curiosity. maybe you can start a miracles thread-i bet we all have beautiful stories to share.

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  12. #6
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    Cool Sorry...

    Quote Originally Posted by barmurphy View Post
    I live in Brooklyn, blocks from the bridge that takes you to Staten Island, do you know what the name of the Church is??? I'd like to visit it.
    I do not. But look up the Paster of the Church in the directory. His name is Pastor Rob Reid. Hope this helps.

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  14. #7
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    Cool hummmm...

    Quote Originally Posted by lglwzrd View Post
    beautiful story...why is it in the dinar thread? is this where we share inspirational stories? please dont read this as sarcasm-just curiosity. maybe you can start a miracles thread-i bet we all have beautiful stories to share.
    Well it is to show YOU. That things happen for a reason. It is a Thread of its own. I will take your advise tho, and change the title to that too. Thanks.

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  16. #8
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    Thanks neno, not to doubt that miracles happen but this has been a long running urban legend and the story varies.

    Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Ivory and Gold Tablecloth

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    Thank you neno for that great story.

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  20. #10
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    The Reader's Digest version from 1954:

    The Gold and Ivory Tablecloth
    by. Howard C. Schade

    At Christmas time men and women everywhere gather in their churches to wonder anew at the greatest miracle the world has ever known. But the story I like best to recall was not a miracle -- not exactly.
    It happened to a pastor who was very young. His church was very old. Once, long ago, it had flourished. Famous men had preached from its pulpit, prayed before its altar. Rich and poor alike had worshipped there and built it beautifully. Now the good days had passed from the section of town where it stood. But the pastor and his young wife believed in their run-down church. They felt that with paint, hammer, and faith they could get it in shape. Together they went to work.

    But late in December a severe storm whipped through the river valley, and the worst blow fell on the little church -- a huge chunk of rain-soaked plaster fell out of the inside wall just behind the altar. Sorrowfully the pastor and his wife swept away the mess, but they couldn't hide the ragged hole.

    The pastor looked at it and had to remind himself quickly, "Thy will be done!" But his wife wept, "Christmas is only two days away!"

    That afternoon the dispirited couple attended the auction held for the benefit of a youth group. The auctioneer opened a box and shook out of its folds a handsome gold and ivory lace tablecloth. It was a magnificent item, nearly 15 feet long. but it, too, dated from a long vanished era. Who, today, had any use for such a thing? There were a few halfhearted bids. Then the pastor was seized with what he thought was a great idea.

    He bid it in for $6.50.

    He carried the cloth back to the church and tacked it up on the wall behind the altar. It completely hid the hole! And the extraordinary beauty of its shimmering handwork cast a fine, holiday glow over the chancel. It was a great triumph. Happily he went back to preparing his Christmas sermon.

    Just before noon on the day of Christmas Eve, as the pastor was opening the church, he noticed a woman standing in the cold at the bus stop. "The bus won't be here for 40 minutes!" he called, and invited her into the church to get warm.

    She told him that she had come from the city that morning to be interviewed for a job as governess to the children of one of the wealthy families in town but she had been turned down. A war refugee, her English was imperfect.

    The woman sat down in a pew and chafed her hands and rested. After a while she dropped her head and prayed. She looked up as the pastor began to adjust the great gold and ivory cloth across the hole. She rose suddenly and walked up the steps of the chancel. She looked at the tablecloth. The pastor smiled and started to tell her about the storm damage, but she didn't seem to listen. She took up a fold of the cloth and rubbed it between her fingers.

    "It is mine!" she said. "It is my banquet cloth!" She lifted up a corner and showed the surprised pastor that there were initials monogrammed on it. "My husband had the cloth made especially for me in Brussels! There could not be another like it."

    For the next few minutes the woman and the pastor talked excitedly together. She explained that she was Viennese; that she and her husband had opposed the Nazis and decided to leave the country. They were advised to go separately. Her husband put her on a train for Switzerland. They planned that he would join her as soon as he could arrange to ship their household goods across the border. She never saw him again. Later she heard that he had died in a concentration camp.

    "I have always felt that it was my fault -- to leave without him," she said. "Perhaps these years of wandering have been my punishment!" The pastor tried to comfort her and urged her to take the cloth with her. She refused. Then she went away.

    As the church began to fill on Christmas Eve, it was clear that the cloth was going to be a great success. It had been skillfully designed to look its best by candlelight.

    After the service, the pastor stood at the doorway. Many people told him that the church looked beautiful. One gentle-faced middle-aged man -- he was the local clock-and-watch repairman -- looked rather puzzled.

    "It is strange," he said in his soft accent. "Many years ago my wife - God rest her -- and I owned such a cloth. In our home in Vienna, my wife put it on the table" -- and here he smiled -- "only when the bishop came to dinner."

    The pastor suddenly became very excited. He told the jeweler about the woman who had been in church earlier that day. The startled jeweler clutched the pastor's arm. "Can it be? Does she live?"

    Together the two got in touch with the family who had interviewed her. Then, in the pastor's car they started for the city. And as Christmas Day was born, this man and his wife, who had been separated through so many saddened Yule tides, were reunited.

    To all who hear this story, the joyful purpose of the storm that had knocked a hole in the wall of the church was now quite clear. Of course, people said it was a miracle, but I think you will agree it was the season for it!

    True love seems to find a way.

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